Chesapeake, VA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Sec. 66-106 sits in the chapter covering installations and work that affects city streets, and it applies to trees and shrubs growing on the street itself, meaning within the public right-of-way, not to ordinary trees in a private yard. Before anyone cuts, trims or sprays such a tree or shrub, they need a permit from the director of development and permits or a designee. The director cannot issue that permit routinely: the work has to be fully justified in the public interest, and once granted, the permit dictates exactly how the cutting, trimming or spraying must be carried out, so a permit holder who deviates from the prescribed method is still out of compliance even with a permit in hand.

This section traces back to a 1963 street-works ordinance, carried into the 1970 code and last amended in 2009. Property owners planning larger development projects should note a separate, broader tree-preservation regime: Sec. 70-91 requires apartment, townhouse, office and commercial developments adjacent to established single-family neighborhoods to protect specimen and historic trees during design, obtain a landscaping permit from the department of planning after final plat approval, and pay the fee set in Sec. 70-191, with compliance verified by a field inspection. That subdivision-level provision, not Sec. 66-106, is the one that reaches tree removal tied to new construction; Sec. 66-106 is narrowly about street trees themselves.